Onto a recordable or rewritable optical disc such as a DVD-R (DVD-Recordable) or a DVD-RW (DVD-Re-Recordable), information is recorded thereon and the recorded information is reproduced by irradiating a laser beam on its recording surface. A power of the laser light irradiated onto the optical disc is controlled based on a recording pulse waveform corresponding to data to be recorded at the time of recording the information, and is maintained to a predetermined reproduction power at the time of reproduction. Specifically, by supplying a current corresponding to a power of a recording pulse waveform and a reproduction power to a light source such as a laser diode (LD), a recording laser light or a reproduction laser light is generated. There is known a method of superimposing a high frequency signal on the current supplied to the laser diode in order to reduce an effect of a return light of the irradiated laser light from the optical disc at this time. The level of the superimposed high frequency signal is same at the time of the recording and the reproduction of the information.
However, in the method of superimposing the high frequency signal having the same level at the time of the recording and the reproduction, by difference of characteristics of the LD and the like loaded on the information recording and reproduction apparatus and difference of characteristics of used optical discs, preferred recording characteristic and reproduction characteristic may be incompatible.